Is Karl Rove the New Benedict Arnold?

Outing a CIA agent for spite doesn't result in a perjury charge. It begins and ends with treason.

It was only a matter of time before Karl Rove self-destructed. Thankfully, it looks like that time has come.

Last week's revelation by senior MSNBC political analyst Lawrence O'Donnell that Rove is, in fact, responsible for "Plamegate" — a two-year scandal involving dirty politics, revenge and veteran CIA agent Valerie Plame — surprises no one. What does surprise me is that he isn't under consideration for execution.

The bastard committed treason, for Pete's sake.

. . . . .

Karl Rove is a slug, a latter-day Joseph Goebbels. As a true believer of the "dirty trick" mindset that catapulted mentor Donald Segretti into a prison cell, Rove has tarred John McCain as a homosexual, a collaborator and an adulterer (wife Cindy was relegated to mere drug addict status) and has stated that liberals and Democrats give aid and comfort to terrorists. It's been alleged he had New Hampshire's celebrated Old Man of the Mountaindemolished out of spite. Nothing is beneath Rove and his tolerance for someone who doesn't buy his administration's message is non-existent.

The Valerie Plame affair has all the trappings of a Rovian smear campaign — demolish one's opponent through intimidation and manipulation. Plame's CIA status was blown as a means of retaliation against husband Joseph Wilson, a former Ambassador and Bush administration agitator. Wilson had denounced claims put forth in President Bush's State of the Union speech in 2003 that Saddam Hussein was seeking "Yellow Cake" uranium from Niger (the obvious implication being nuclear armament). A week later, bloated sycophant and CNN pundit Robert Novak fired back with both barrels.

What better way to silence a critic than mark his spouse for death?

Whether you feel Plame's outing constitutes a real danger to her or Wilson's life is irrelevant. Revealing such information is treasonous, and Rove knows it. But will this explosive allegation carry any weight in Washington, D.C.? In a country where the president can lie to the nation and ignore its citizens as he bullies far-off lands with depleted uranium shells, is there any threat of culpability for Bush's right-hand man?

Doubtful.

Already the spin has begun, and if ever there was a time for the allegations to come to light, this past weekend was it. While Americans headed into an alcohol-drenched weekend celebrating a 229-year-old downward spiral of independence and freedom, Rove's legal team (Rove himself refused interviews) declared that he didn't "knowingly" pass information to Time reporter Matt Cooper — but even if he did, he wasn't the first person to do so, so he's not the original leak. What a tangled web, eh?

However, such a rationale is ridiculous. So what if Rove was the second source? For that defense to work, Rove would have to admit to knowing of a prior leak... and of doing nothing to stop it. Translation: he let someone else commit treason and then lied to cover it up, to say nothing of his intent.

Isn't it great seeing just how duplicitous and retarded our nation's leaders can be?

Rove committed treason, but he's a criminal among criminals and the inevitable outcome of this will be a perjury charge. (It's the downside of having to "lie" to protect another treasonous source as an alibi in grand jury proceedings.) A presidential pardon is out of the question; it's too obvious and over-the-top. Getting fined for lying is a nothing trial. Rove's wrist will get slapped and all the media attention paid on his public "excoriation" will diminish some of the heat pointed at other administration misfires... like the kind that send thousands of our soldiers to death needlessly.

In the end, Rove's two-year-old slip-up may work to his Master's benefit by hiding the bigger lies. Lies like crudely forged documents that sent a nation into war. Deliberate lies that tricked the people of this country into thinking a tangible threat to their lives existed. Evil lies that resulted in the arbitrary punishment of those who would seek to expose the deception.

Will Rove become a victim of his own ruthless politics? Not likely — but even if he does fall out of favor with the current inner sanctum, his behind-the-scenes machinations are likely even more dangerous.

Let's not let the indictment cloud our minds from the real story, though. Rove falling on his sword is great, and I'm glad his bluster and arrogance is reaping the dividend he so richly deserves, but there are greater issues to hammer Bush with right now. His flat-out refusal to pull our troops out of their current situation alone shows we're merely chattel used for taxation and cannon fodder. Pushing for impeachment and punishment of the villains who so thoughtlessly deconstructed our nation is the primary goal.

Make the Fourth of July stand for something again. Instead of paying lip service to the ideals that made this nation great with a Sparkler, honor those values by booting the bastards that kill and destroy in our name to the curb. Dip them in tar, slap some feathers on and parade them around. Show what happens when reporters and White House stooges defy their mandate to better the men and women of the United States.

I'm serious. Until we hold our leaders accountable, there's no reason for men like Rove not to leak classified information and use the federal government as their own personal plaything. Change begins at home. Don't let an asshole like Karl Rove change all that.